Simple solution for blocking unwanted internet usage patterns with time logging and behavioural placement

It should be difficult to start browsing unwanted stuff. It should be easy to stop doing so.

First step is to download and set it up

mkdir -p ./i/n/t/e/r/n/e/t/b/l/o/c/k/
cd ./i/n/t/e/r/n/e/t/b/l/o/c/k/
git clone https://github.com/MichaelLeachim/internet_blck

Then you should cp _conf_sample.sh _conf.sh and set up password for _hosts_block.gpg and _hosts_allow.gpg files there.

Then you should write hosts that you are going to block in _hosts_block.gpg and write hosts that you are going to allow in _hosts_allow.gpg and then encrypt them with symmetric cipher. Block/allow file should look like this:

## hacker news

$REDIRECT_TO news.ycombinator.com
$REDIRECT_TO indiehackers.com

## reddit

$REDIRECT_TO reddit.com
$REDIRECT_TO old.reddit.com

Second step, is to bind block.sh to a keybinding

WARNING! Using these scripts will override your /etc/hosts file. Back it up!

I use i3wm. And it looks like this:

bindsym $mod+F4 exec /home/mik/Projects/i/n/t/e/r/n/e/t/b/l/o/c/k/block.sh

It is by design, that you can't use allow.sh from outside of the scripts folder. It should be difficult to start browsing unwanted stuff. It should be easy to stop doing so.

Stats Status and i3 integration

I like status to be displayed in the dock, so I echo /home/mik/Projects/internet_block/_status to the dock in the i3wm by using py3status and a custom runner script like this:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import subprocess
import time
class Py3status:
  cache_timeout = 10
  formatted = "%s"
  def shell_call(self):
    return {
      'full_text':self.formatted%(subprocess.check_output(self.script_path).replace("\n","")),
      'cached_until': time.time()  + self.cache_timeout,
    }

And then in the i3status.conf file:

order += "shell_call internet_block"
shell_call internet_block {
  script_path = "/home/mik/Projects/internet_block/status.sh"
}

You can do the same for conky making it look cool.